Invincible gun safe?

[dyl]

10+ years ago, I remember being at someone's unattached garage where they were talking about their trusty gun safe. If i remember correctly, they said that before they had an alarm system installed, someone had broken in and tried to open it with a cutting torch and gave up and left. The owner pointed to some hinges at the front, and one seemed a little deformed, and he later had to repaint the front of the safe.

I know just a little about metal working but knew even less back then, so I just accepted it.

These days my inclination is to believe that any commercially available safe for home owners could be defeated through the sides with an angle grinder. It might take a couple blades, it might not. Back then perhaps the 20V Lithium ion cordless tools weren't available and so they used a torch. Which would be quieter I suppose.
I'm inclined to think the steel side panels aren't hardened / heat treated, they just gauge strength by thickness alone. Mild steel.

So would someone have really given up? Maybe ran out of fuel for the torch? Arms got tired? Spooked? Tried using a Propane torch?

[cslinger]

The only invincible gun safe is the invisible gun safe.

[FITASC]

Or the one you get when you buy an abandoned bank building.........those would make great walk-in vaults..........

[unclenunzie]

Safes buy time, not invincibility. Did a lot of reading about safes years ago and it kind of comes down to a minimum of steel thickness, properly bolted down, with other layers like alarms, lights, toothy critters, insurance riders, etc. Really depends on what value you place on what you want to protect, and how much money you wish to spend on that.

Others know a great deal more than me, the average gun accumulator. Even the finest jeweler's safe can be cut open but the time it takes is the protection you buy.

About the only direct recommendation I can make is pay for quality, bolt it down with proper hardware in a corner, arranged so the non-hinge side is against a wall. This makes using a pry bar almost impossible, no room to lever it.

[Ed4032]

The idea of a safe is that it is just one more barrier to slow the thieves down. Hopefully they give up and move to an easier target.

[rc]

The invincible gun safe has an autonomous defensive system such as the owner with a loaded weapon ready to defend it. If you can build a hide out for your safe and conceal it in your house it would add an extra layer of security. Crooks can't steal what they cant find and they can't steal what they don't have time to deal with if your house has an alarm.

[dyl]

Or the one you get when you buy an abandoned bank building.........those would make great walk-in vaults..........

Now one of THOSE safes I could see someone actually giving up on

[TXAZ]

Originally Posted by dyl

Now one of THOSE safes I could see someone actually giving up on

A few people notably didn’t give up (cracking) on bank safes and gained substantial fortune...

[BJung]

The best safe for me - and for the money - are government surplus safes. I had one at my oldest brother's house for extra guns. To make the story short, his house caught on fire. It was so hot that steel beams bent and aluminum engine parts melted into a puddle. Everything was ashes except for "that" safe. I looked it up on the internet and apparently, there was one in Hiroshima that survived the atomic bomb. That's good enough for me.

[Shadow9mm]

no gun safe is invincible, but some are better than others. This video is older but explains a LOT about safes, very good info. basically, the more steel the better, and know exactly how much steel you are getting. I actually purchased a safe from the guy in the vid, CE Safes a year or 2 ago. Great service, great safe.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ltK-bDbADa8&t=214s

On another note, People spend big money on safes, but skimp on basic home security. Find a local locksmith, not just google, make sure they have a brick and mortar store. Make sure your entry doors have reinforced latches and hinges, and good quality locks with uncommon keys. Protect everything in your house, including yourself and your family, make it hard to even get in the door.

[Pahoo]

Now one of THOSE safes I could see someone actually giving up on

A number of years ago, I was offered a safe that came out of a post office. On the outside, it was rather large. On the inside, the useable space was limited. The walls and door were lined with about a foot of of concrete. I seldom pass on a freebee and this is one of those times.

You have to weigh the odds of someone wanting to break in. First off, very few people know that I have one and what's in it. I don't worry about a pro breaking in; I worry about some dumb kids making a big mistake .....

Be Safe !!!

[T. O'Heir]

Like Shadow9mm says, no safe is invincible. Any of 'em can be opened with enough time. Even a bank vault.
"...with a cutting torch..." The criminal take that with him or was it the safe owner's? Just curious, but if it's the former there was serious planning and transport involved.
"...except for "that" safe..." The contents would be, um, toasted. Al, depending on the actual alloy, melts at 655 ° C (1215 ° F). Steel loses temper at about 200 to 500 C. Wood starts to burn at 300 C.

[Jim Watson]

I suggested to a friend with a good shop that he lock up his torch tips, cutoff blades, and carbide drills along with his valuables. So a yegg would at least have to bring his own tools.

[4V50 Gary]

Anything man makes, man can destroy. What you're doing is buying time. Security is layered.

[Schlitz 45]

I have guitars hanging on walls all around the house as as a diversionary tactic.

[ejfalvo]

I like the invisible concept. Whomever built our house was either a genius or an idiot. All of the bathrooms are 'two-stage (front part sink, another door, commode and tub/shower.) In one of the downstairs full baths, the initial entry door opens and completely covers a small closet door - the only way to see this closet is if you go into the bathroom and close the first door. I took the door and frame off the 'hidden' closet - replaced with metal frame and matching door, added a stronger lock and it became 'an invisible safe'. In my thoughts - a thief wouldn't consider a bathroom a likely location for a safe and secondly, they would have to enter the bathroom, turn on the light, close the door and turn to the side to see the closet safe.

[veprdude]

I keep an old Montgomery Ward safe upstairs filled with loud metal objects and pennies. It's not bolted down but it would waste a lot of time trying to remove it, haul it downstairs, etc. Then after opening it, you're about $3.00 richer.

[Ricklin]

Originally Posted by FITASC

Or the one you get when you buy an abandoned bank building.........those would make great walk-in vaults..........

I know of two dentists who bought old bank branches. I helped them make the building a dental office. As cool and mechanically beautiful as they are they tend to be fairly useless. If used as a room the vault door must be permanently blocked open. One dentist paid big money to demo the safe, the vault door? Scrap steel. Very very costly to demo a vault. The other doc used it as a kids play room, really held the noise down.

[Jim Watson]

A Mexican restaurant here had an old vault door hung for decor. No vault behind it, just a door.
Friends have offices in an old bank. I haven't been in lately and don't recall the disposition of the vault.

I once worked in a building that had been a secure facility. There was a large room full of fire resistant combination file cabinets and a real vault for the Good Stuff. The vault combination was in the caretaker's desk (In another building half a mile away.), no problem getting in there, but there was no record of the file cabinet combinations. We had the maintenance department come in with sledge hammers, crowbars, and saws.
It was not as easy for them as commonly depicted for gun cabinets, but they eventually got them all open.

[Ricklin]

I shall always remind. The first function of your safe is fire protection, not security. My safe does have a real UL listing for fire resistance, I recall making that a priority when I purchased it years ago. Now I am at the point of either reducing the accumulation (collections have themes) or downsizing it. Downsizing is very likely.

[rc]

Yeh, it adds complexity to the steal but also puts the guns all in one place for the criminals. Even Fort Knox has armed guards and security system If you can bolt the safe down in tight confined space it will make it harder to break in. If you can build around the safe only leaving the door exposed, it will have the highest delay time.

[FITASC]

Most of these things labeled "gun safes" are really called a RSC; they are NOT a safe. Areal safe has a T rating and are usually sold to jewelry stores and others who handle high end merchandise

[Shadow9mm]

Zombie thread

[FITASC]

Shadow - thanks for the link!

[Mal H]

Originally Posted by Shadow9mm

Zombie thread

That's true. And since the thread starter "dyl" hasn't been around since 2022, there's not much point in continuing to discuss his question.

The thread was resurrected by a new member who asked an unrelated question. That topic has been moved to a new thread.

Closed.